Jose Ramirez started boxing in the gym in Avenal at the tender age of 8.

Initially, he stunk.

“First time I went in there I wasn’t too good at it, so I kind of totally got embarrassed and walked out,” said Ramirez, who Saturday will take on Mike Reed in the junior welterweight main event on ESPN at Save Mart Center in Fresno, about 60 miles from Avenal, a farming community of 12,466.

Ramirez noticed how many other kids were going to this gym, and gave it another try. He wanted to be more social, which was part of why he returned. He’s also very competitive.

“Once I went back to the gym the second time, it was like, ‘OK, I realize that I’m falling behind,’ so I wanted to catch up and learn the sport of boxing,” Ramirez said. “So I was the first one there and the last one to leave every single day.”

All his hard work bore fruit when he made the 2012 U.S. Olympic team, going 1-1 in the London Games.

“It was a beautiful experience,” Ramirez said.

Today, he’s on the cusp of his first world-title shot as a pro. It is supposed to come if he emerges victorious over Reed (23-0, 12 KOs), of Washington D.C.

“It would be an honor for me to be a world champion, bring pride to my family and myself,” said Ramirez, who has two brothers and a sister and Mexican immigrant parents. “My first amateur fight was when I was 8 years old, and I’m 25 now. All the hard work I’ve done and all the sacrifices, you would take a deep breath and say, ‘It was all worth it.’ ”

But there is more to Ramirez (20-0, 15 KOs) than boxing. He’s also an advocate for farmers, whether it be speaking on their character, or fighting for water rights.

All that began when he started toiling in the fields when he was 14, having already been an amateur boxer for six years.

“I went out to work, picking bell peppers from 5 in the morning all the way until 3:30 in the afternoon,” Ramirez said. “I was getting home at 4 in the afternoon and then going to the gym at 4:30. That was my day during summer.

“And I was just trying to help out my parents a little bit, trying to buy my own clothes, get my own money.”

During a telephone conversation Wednesday, Ramirez talked about how hard the job was in 100-plus degree weather. Keep in mind there were people three and four times older than he was enduring this discomfort. It went straight to his heart, and he started to speak up for them.

“It’s for people to appreciate the hard-working people, the immigrants, people who come here and pay their taxes, the families that have been here for so many years and have followed the law and have done so much for this country,” he said.

“When you walk into a grocery store, you go through the fruit department. You see the apples, you see the citrus, the tomatoes, the avocados, the pistachios, the almonds, the lettuce. All that has been picked by the hands of many people and sometimes I feel like they’re not appreciated as much.”

Ramirez said the California water wars between farmers and environmentalists who want to reduce the flow of water to the Central Valley from Northern California to save an endangered fish also tug at him, so he speaks on behalf of the California Latino Water Coalition in that regard.

To Ramirez, it’s all about one big family – the farming community. It’s those people – about 14,000 of them – who will fill Save Mart Center on Saturday. The card is dubbed “Fight for Water.”

“Families here are usually spread out all over Central California, so you start knowing each other and all of a sudden Central California becomes one,” Ramirez said. “And we’re all pretty much the same. Very family oriented, come from the same culture and people get involved here.”

Ramirez feels the love. You can hear it in his voice.

“For an Olympian to come out of Central California, all of a sudden the pride kind of falls on all of us,” he said. “So every time I win, every time something good happens, I just feel like everybody else is just as excited as I am. Every time I’m fighting, there is always a bigger reason I’m fighting.”

Etc.

Eric Gomez, president of Golden Boy Promotions, told us Thursday that next week he will again meet with Tom Loeffler of K2 Promotions to discuss the rematch between middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin and Canelo Alvarez. The two boxed to a split draw in September at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. …

Now that heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder has dispatched Bermane Stiverne via first-round knockout this past Saturday at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, we’re all hopeful Wilder and fellow champion Anthony Joshua will fight each other to unify the division. …

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